


what lips my lips have kissed

by sky_of_starflowers



Series: collected lines in a possible future [2]
Category: Smallville, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, Smallville-verse, hey look i made clark sad for no good reason again, listen clark and lex were best friends and that loss had to of been devastating for clark, so why not some not so healthy coping mechanisms?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29953953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_of_starflowers/pseuds/sky_of_starflowers
Summary: Clark has a bad day and nobody to talk to about it, so he makes a hologram.Listen, it's totally normal to create a hologram of your current archenemy and former friend/love, okay?
Relationships: Clark Kent & Lex Luthor, Clark Kent/Lex Luthor
Series: collected lines in a possible future [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2203017
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	what lips my lips have kissed

**Author's Note:**

> hello again! this is my continued disclaimer that i could be wrong about so many things - the fortress, holograms in dc-verse, clark's characterization, lex's characterization (though he's a hologram here so he could be wrong because it's not really him.) 
> 
> i still haven't finished smallville but i like the characters.
> 
> this is technically a prequel to "no man"
> 
> title from "what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" by edna st. vincent millay. 
> 
> enjoy!

To say that Clark had had a bad day would be an understatement. Not only was it the anniversary of his father’s death, but Lois had gotten kidnapped again, the League had been fighting, and worst of all, he’d had to comfort his mom. Clark loved his mother, of course, unconditionally, but it was times like these that made him feel like a teenager just growing into his powers again. He missed his friends and being able to talk about his problems with them. The League was great, sure, but they were just getting to know each other. Batman wouldn’t even consider telling the others his true identity, which Clark understood, but it hurt that he apparently didn’t see himself trusting the rest of the League that much.

Which is how Clark found himself in the Fortress of Solitude, staring at the computer and learning how to create his own hologram. Jor-El had mentioned the function during Clark’s “training,” presumably as a way of improving his Kryptonian if the face Jor-El made any time Clark spoke it was any sort of indication. Clark had kind of ignored it at the time, turning a blind eye to the insult. Now, Clark was following the computer’s step-by-step instructions, setting up the hologram’s parameters.

It had taken him about ten minutes of self-debate to actually start though, since his idea was kind of insane.

After all, who creates a hologram of their archenemy?

Well, okay, Clark rationalized, he wasn’t _actually_ making a hologram of his archenemy, Luthor, the man bent on destroying Superman. He was making a hologram of Lex, his friend who was willing to do anything for Clark’s happiness. Sure, it might’ve started because a Luthor is never indebted to someone, but Clark liked to think that he and Lex were real friends once upon a time. He’d heard it often enough that Lex thought of them as true friends.

“ _Computer, gather all news and media on Lex Luthor_ ,” Clark said, picking his hands up off of the “keyboard.” The computer didn’t have physical keys like Clark was used to, more like resistant air that acted as a physical keyboard, represented through a projection. Still, it worked well enough after some getting used to. Clark was only able to use it at first after playing around with the pod that brought him to Earth in the first place.

“ _2, 362, 948, 038 news and media results on Lex Luthor collected._ ” Clark winced. Since Lex was president now, he should’ve thought about how many news articles were written about him a day, not to mention the days when Lex was Lionel Luthor’s infamous party boy son.

“ _Dismiss results that relate to rumors and results that have been proven incorrect._ ”

“ _1, 725, 858, 093 news and media results on Lex Luthor collected. 637, 089, 945 results dismissed._ ” Oh good, Clark thought. Only almost 2 billion results left.

Luckily for him, he had super speed on his side.

A few minutes later, Clark had weeded out the files he didn’t want, keeping more video files than he’d expected and even finding some previously undiscovered articles that Lex himself had apparently written. Things to build Lex’s personality, his vocal patterns and mannerisms – things like that were important.

Clark felt himself pale a moment later when he realized that none of this would matter if the hologram had no idea who Clark was. So Clark did something else that was probably stupid. He added his own personal data file to the hologram’s memory banks, letting at least one version of Lex know who he was behind Superman’s cape.

With all of the data input, the only thing left to do was to let the hologram load and pray that the programming didn’t crash on him.

Clark didn’t wait in the room, instead heading to his Fortress bedroom to change into non-Superman clothes and grab something to eat. The computer alerted him after eight very stressful minutes that the hologram was complete and loaded, ready to launch when Clark said.

He took his time going back to the main computer room, pausing at the doorway when he arrived. “ _Computer, load personal interface Lex.1_.”

Lex’s image was built from the ground up in a flicker of lights emanating from the computer, giving him a vaguely green outline for a moment before it faded. The hologram saw Clark, and he smiled. “Clark,” he said, and Clark felt very much sixteen years old.

He hadn’t programmed the hologram how to dress, so Clark guessed that the computer had filled in the details, based on Clark’s parameters of “casual” and Lex Luthor’s personality. What that meant, however, was that this Lex was dressed in a long sleeve t-shirt and black slacks, dress shoes shining under the hems of the pants. In short, Lex looked very much like he did when Clark would deliver produce to the mansion in Smallville.

Clark felt tears prickle at the corners of his eyes, emotions that he’d been trying to keep locked up all day bubbling over. “Lex,” he said, voice wet. “I missed you.”

Lex frowned, walking over and wiping tears off of Clark’s face. It felt like the keyboard, but it obviously worked because Clark could feel water being wiped off of his face. “I missed you too,” he said, and then Lex leaned up to kiss Clark.

It wasn’t something that had lasted long between the two of them, the real Lex and Clark. To be fair, they hadn’t tried to act on the tension between them until the universe was driving them apart, Lex falling further and further into his father’s darkness and Clark being pushed closer and closer to the light of being Superman. So to have this hologram emulate that brief flame in Clark’s chest burned him. He pressed a hand into the hologram’s chest, pushing him back slightly. “We can’t,” Clark said, and the look the hologram gave him was so realistic.

Eventually, the hologram nodded, still staring up at Clark. “Okay, then we won’t.” Lex took a step back, and a chair appeared that he sat in. “So, tell me about your day.”

Clark couldn’t help but laugh a little at the ridiculous image of Lex Luthor making himself at home in his Fortress of Solitude, ready to hear about Clark’s positively shitty day. “Okay,” Clark started after a breath. “So, first of all, it’s the anniversary of my father’s death…”

* * *

Thousands of miles away, Lex Luthor turned to look outside of the Oval Office’s window, pausing in the middle of paperwork he was supposed to review for a meeting, with the intense feeling that today was important. He didn’t know why.

After a long moment of staring into the sunset, Lex Luthor turned back around to his desk, putting the feeling behind him. “Must be one of those things I’m forgetting,” Lex said, picking the open folder up again.

**Author's Note:**

> happy ending? hmmm, maybe in part 3


End file.
